Eyal Ben-Ari (; born 1953) is a former professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). His research interests include Japan as well as the Israeli Defence Forces. He served as the head of the university's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace until January 2007, and also taught the Introduction to Anthropology course, making him well known to students. Career Ben-Ari studied sociology at HUJI, graduating with a B.A. in 1978 and an M.A. in 1980. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1984 in Social Anthropology, after which he returned to HUJI as a lecturer (1985–1990), senior lecturer (1990–1994), associate professor (1994–1998), and full professor. He has also served as a visiting professor or research fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Department of Anthropology and School of Business (1992), the National University of Singapore's Department of Japanese Studies (1992–1994 and 2001–2002), Sophia University's Faculty of Comparative Culture, Waseda University's Asia-Pacific Research Institute, and Kyoto University's Institute for Research in the Humanities (2005–2006). In 2008, a master's dissertation which he supervised became an object of public controversy due to its thesis that the refusal of Israeli soldiers to rape Arab women was a form of racism; Ben-Ari, co-supervisor Edna Lomsky-Feder, and Zali Gurevitch defended the thesis in media comments. Sexual harassment conviction In May 2008, a teaching assistant at Hebrew University published accusations of sexual misconduct regarding one of Ben-Ari's colleagues, which led to closer scrutiny of the department. Ben-Ari's troubles with the law began when a number of students sent an anonymous e-mail to university authorities, accusing him of rape and of threatening to withhold their research funding if they refused to have sex with him. Department chair Zali Gurevitch also said that in 2007, another student had mentioned rumours of Ben-Ari's sexual misconduct to him; Gurevitch took the matter to the university administration, but the student was unwilling to testify formally, and the matter was not further investigated. Ben-Ari was arrested in July 2008, then remanded to house arrest and banned from university premises for 30 days pending further investigation. Ben-Ari denied the charges against him, and when questioned by police would admit only that he had had a consensual affair with a student 12 years prior. In August 2008, three female students filed sexual harassment complaints against Ben-Ari. Police announced that